The delicate art of 'dialogue,' courtesy of Gary Bettman, who didn't necessarily enlighten the NHLPA on Saturday

The Globe and Mail's Eric Duhatschek reports that the NHLPA's summer meetings reached their zenith with Gary Bettman speaking to the players for the first time, um, ever during a players' meeting session...

And the Chairman didn't necessarily say all that much:

June 20, Globe and Mail: Bettman covered a broad range of topics, including the future of the Coyotes in Phoenix which remains one of the hottest topics in the industry.

"I explained exactly what happened and how we look at franchise issues and how this club wound up where it is and the fact we don't believe it should be in bankruptcy and the fact having rules and enforcing our rules and procedures is vitally important," said Bettman, who characterized his address as "a good, open candid dialogue."

"I had made a list of about 10 issues that I wanted to talk about: state of the game, how the cap works with the escrow, fighting, drug testing, you know all the things that you would expect. And then we spent a fair amount taking questions. And I think is was a good, candid dialogue. I was grateful for the opportunity to spend time with the players and I hope they viewed it as constructive."

Among the other talking points: the future of the NHL's Olympics participation; possible changes to the league's drug policy, the look of fighting in the future, the flattening salary cap and the implications of the current economic downturn.

"There may not have been a whole lot of new information but it was an opportunity for players to get a sense of how we look at things," said Bettman.

Bettman needed nothing more than to clarify the league's position regarding its desire to adopt a World Anti-Drug Association-style drug testing policy, and he chose not to do anything more than sound the, "We don't have a problem" horn:

"While we didn't discuss specifics, conceptually everyone in the room agreed that this isn't a sport where the players really have a problem but we can probably do more together to make the drug program look and act better than it does," Bettman said.